


Scarlet Fire

by Echovous



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Killing, Blood, Child Abuse, Child Death, Gen, Guilt, Murder, One Shot, Outliers - Freeform, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Pre-War Cybertron, Seeker Trines, Self-blaming, Stigmata, Teleportation, Transformer Sparklings, Vos City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 13:13:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21100034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echovous/pseuds/Echovous
Summary: While pulling a prank on his brother, Thundercracker, Skywarp catches sight of a strange-looking Seeker sparkling. She’s an outlier, if her lack of wings and glowing protoform are any indication, and she’s going to need his help.





	Scarlet Fire

“Hey! Give tha—“

Skywarp snickered as he teleported to the top of the highest building in southern Vos, wishing he could hear Thundercracker’s howls of fury. 

In his servos, he held his brother’s data pad, opened to a long page of text. 

::You slagger!:: Came the comm from Thundercracker. 

Skywarp just laughed, holding his sides. He loved messing with Thundercracker. He always had the best reactions. Skywarp looked up, scanning the rooftops for his brother. In the distance, he spotted a slim, streamlined form rise and begin to patrol the sky. 

::Hey, TC, I think I see you! Can you see me waving?” Skywarp asked, still sitting on the roof. He pressed against the tile, flattening his wings against his back so that the other flier wouldn’t see him. 

Thundercracker growled through the comm. In the distance, the shape banked to circle back around. ::When I find you I’m gonna knock you into next cycle!::

::I’ll be waiting!:: Skywarp smiled. ::I’ve got a ton of good reading material to get through while I wait.” 

Thundercracker paused then snapped with renewed fury. ::Don’t you dare touch my data pad!::

::Oh, why not? Have you been reading something you shouldn’t?:: Skywarp asked. He’d snatched the device straight out of his brother’s servos. It was already unlocked, allowing him to access any tab, and from the tab already open, he could see that his brother was reading something rather...steamy... 

::If you dare read that—::

::Thundercracker! Skywarp!:: Another voice crackled through the comm. ::If you two plan to squabble all cycle, don’t use the group comm!::

::Hey, Starscream,:: Skywarp laughed. ::I found something that TC’s been reading. You’ve gotta see this!::

::Starscream, don’t listen to him!:: 

Skywarp laughed again. ::I’ll send you my coordinates, Star. You’ve gotta see this yourself, it’s great!::

::Starscream, you better give me his coordinates,:: Thundercracker demanded with a voice full of defeat. 

Starscream growled. ::Do I even want to read it?::

::There’s nothing to read!:: Thundercracker said. ::It’s not even mine!::

::Are you sure it isn’t yours?:: Skywarp teased. ::Hmm.. I never would’ve thought you’d like reading the dirty ones, TC,:: he scrolled down the data pad. 

Thundercracker groaned. 

::What exactly have you been reading?:: Starscream asked Thundercracker. 

::Ugh... Private comm, right now.:: 

Skywarp laughed again as both of his trinemates cut out the group comm. He kicked out his pedes to rock himself forward into a sitting position, his wings trembling and threatening to tip him over with how hard he was laughing. Skywarp was only vaguely aware of two Seekers stepping onto a roof a few buildings down from him followed by a single sparkling. 

At first, the sparkling’s paint job looked as if she were just red with the lights of Vos illuminating her plating. There was nothing that set her off from any other Seeker sparkling except that her frame looked much thinner than usual, which prompted Skywarp to glance over at her again. He quickly noticed that she wasn’t wearing any plating. Her protoform was exposed and it was... glowing... Like, actually glowing, and not in any way that could be considered normal. Her protoform was red-hot, the color of heated metal. 

Skywarp looked closer, squinting his optics at the sparkling. She had a Seeker frame that lacked wings. The only evidence of wings were the small wing buds at the back of her shoulders which was not normal for a sparkling her age. Could it have something to do with the red-hot glow?

The sparkling spun, hopping off the pile of crates she’d climbed atop, sliding down the melting metal. She smiled and reached for the femme, wrapping her servos around her leg. The femme howled in agony and kicked the sparkling, a knee-jerk reaction that slammed the sparkling into the crates. The femme’s wings twitched in shock and when the femme turned to comfort the crying sparkling, Skywarp caught sight of the singed plating where the sparkling had touched her. 

It looked like the femme had been branded...

Realization hit Skywarp like turbulence. The sparkling was an outlier: a bot with unique abilities unrelated to their alternate mode. Any other bot would deactivate if their protoform burned like that, but this sparkling was bouncing around as if nothing was happening. She probably didn’t even realize she was different, but her creators definitely did...

The femme turned back to the mech, her anger renewed now that she’d soothed the crying sparkling. Her wings flicked aggressively and she stamped her ped in an obvious threat. The mech didn’t stand down. His wings remained upright, twitching with impatience. 

Skywarp grew tired of watching the arguing Seekers. His optics returned to the sparkling. She wasn’t watching her creators. It didn’t even appear as if she could hear them. She bounced on a patch of tile behind the femme, jerking her wing buds this way and that to catch her balance. 

Skywarp smiled. Not only was she a cute little Seeker (even without wings), she was just like him. Although, not exactly. His protoform didn’t melt anything and everything that came into contact with it. He was a teleporter, transporting himself to different locations with nothing more than a thought and a few calculations. 

Still, they were fairly similar. Outliers were rare, almost unheard of in many places on Cybertron. The Council didn’t like them. Didn’t like their powers. Many outliers were captured, imprisoned, experimented on, or straight up deactivated. He was lucky to have avoided all of those things, if just barely. 

His optics flickered back to the femme. Her wings were lowered now, and she appeared to be crying. He frowned as he watched her. The femme turned her back to the mech, then she transformed and flew away, leaving the glowing sparkling with the mech. 

For a moment, the mech watched the sparkling. The sparkling hadn’t seemed to notice that one of her creators had just flown off. Now she was fixated on the way the light emanating from her protoform lit up the tiling beneath her. 

The mech continued to watch her, his posture stiff and uncomfortable. He panned his gaze over the horizon uneasily, probably to make sure he was alone, before he approached the sparkling. She spun around and stared up at him, her bright orange optics beaming. The mech paused momentarily, then he grabbed the sparkling by the wrist. His body stiffened and his wings flicked quickly—all signs of pain. He clenched his denta as he dragged the sparkling to the edge of the roof. He lifted her, swung her over the edge, and let go. 

Skywarp shot to his pedes, his optics widening. He just threw her off! 

Skywarp was frozen in place as he watched the scene play out in slow motion. The mech swinging her off the side, his plating red-hot and steaming where he’d touched her. The sparkling tumbling through the air, her high-pitched squeals echoing. The mech turning to leave. The sparkling still falling... 

He had to save her—that was the first thought that came to his processor. 

Skywarp transformed, taking off to dive after the sparkling. He wasn’t going fast enough. He’d have to teleport to save her... Starscream didn’t like it when he teleported out in the open. He told him to save it for emergencies to prevent discovery, but surely this counted as an emergency! Skywarp began to calculate where he was going to teleport. He reran the calculations through his processor, then he teleported.

The sparkling landed on top of him, grunting as the sudden impact knocked the vents out of her. Skywarp slowed his thrusters to hover in midair, allowing her time to grab on... only to have a searing heat—like he’d been thrown straight into a smelter—spread through his plating. He bellowed, screaming from the pain. What was happening?! It felt like his plating was melting! 

Above him, the red-hot sparkling rolled over, tiny servos grasping for a hold, spreading the unbearable heat. 

It’s the sparkling! He’d completely forgotten about her burning protoform! Ugh, he’s an idiot!

Skywarp continued to howl, his plating rattling from the pain. It took all of his strength to keep his engines running, and even then, that strength was fading fast.. The sparkling’s tiny servos slid down his fuselage, digits slipping into seams, singeing the sensitive wires. Then her tiny servos grabbed at his wing...

Skywarp shrieked at the burst of pain and rolled to the side without thinking, catapulting the sparkling off of him. The sparkling screamed as she began to plummet down the side of the building. Oh no! Skywarp recovered quickly, scanning his surroundings for the sparkling that was falling farther and farther. She was too close to the ground. There was no time... 

Skywarp stared, helpless to do anything, as the sparkling hit the ground with a tank-wrenching crack. Her delicate protoform shattered on impact, pieces detaching to skip through the streets with a horrible scrape. A splatter of energon shot out from around her helm, surrounding her in a crooked halo. 

No, no, no! Skywarp began to descend. He felt his frame trembling as he approached the sparkling. He’d had her... She’d landed right on top of him...

He transformed beside the sparkling, dropping down to his knee struts. “No, oh Primus, no...” 

Skywarp’s servos hesitated above the sparkling’s broken shoulder, feeling the faint heat rising from her on his palm. She was so still. The only movement he could make out was the energon flowing from the sparkling’s intake, evaporating into a cloud of steam as it hit her heated protoform. 

“I didn’t mean to... I didn’t mean to...” Skywarp pressed his servos to the sparkling’s shoulder, shaking her. It burned his servos, but not as bad as before. Her protoform was already cooling... 

He shook her harder. “Please wake up, please! This was an accident!” 

The sparkling’s helm rolled loosely and unresponsively as he shook her. Her optics were hollow... Skywarp stopped, looking down at the broken sparkling. His intake quivered. He stopped himself from crying out, jumping up to his pedes instead. He backed away from the sparkling. 

What was he supposed to do? Should he go to the authorities? H-he can’t just leave her here... Should he find the mech who did this? The mech had turned to leave. He could be anywhere. A-and Skywarp had been the one to do this. She had landed on him and he’d thrown her off like some... some idiot! 

Skywarp’s wings quivered. He felt cold all of a sudden. This had been an accident... He hadn’t been trying to do this... Not at all...

“Found you!” A triumphant shout came from behind him, followed by transforming parts and a kick to his back. 

Skywarp stumbled forward, still in shock. 

“Now give me back my data pad before I take it from you!” Thundercracker grabbed Skywarp by the wings and spun him around to face him. Thundercracker’s expression softened when he noticed Skywarp’s distraught faceplates. “Bro, are you alright?”

Skywarp stepped back from Thundercracker. He couldn’t get the words to form properly in his vocalizer so he just glanced over at where the sparkling still laid. 

Thundercracker followed his optics. “What the Pit?!” He rushed forward to stand over the deactivated sparkling. His optics snapped over to Skywarp. “What happened?!”

“S-She was thrown off,” Skywarp answered, tipping his helm up to look up the side of the building, his spark racing in his spark chamber. 

“Who threw her off?”

“I-I,” Skywarp couldn’t think clearly. “I tried to save her, I teleported, and I accidentally rolled, and she fell, and I’m...”

“Skywarp, who threw her off?!” Thundercracker demanded. His wings flicked in disgust. “Was it a grounder? I bet it was a grounder!”

“I didn’t see, okay?!” He snapped. “She was on a rooftop with two Seekers. They were arguing, t-then the one just grabbed her and threw her off! I didn’t see who it was, I was too busy trying to save her!” 

Thundercracker looked back at the sparkling, grimacing.

“What did you two do?!” Starscream landed behind them at the same time as his accusation. He pushed past Thundercracker to stand over the sparkling. 

“We didn’t do anything! Sky said this thing was thrown off!” Thundercracker explained. 

“Why?” Starscream asked, his optics passing from Thundercracker to Skywarp. 

Thundercracker looked over at Skywarp with a shrug. 

Skywarp vented in a deep in-vent before he began. “Um... I don’t know, she was glowing, l-like she was an outlier, which I’m pretty sure she was, it makes sense if she was. I think that’s why, I mean, it is customary in Vos to throw deformed sparklings from rooftops I, um... I don’t know...” He was rambling so much he hadn’t noticed his trinemates press up against either side of him. 

“I tried to catch her...” he continued, still shaking despite the comforting fields of both Starscream and Thundercracker. “I didn’t mean to... I didn’t mean to let her fall... Primus, it’s all my fault...”

“Enough of that,” Starscream snapped, but the snap had no bite. 

“It’s not your fault,” Thundercracker added, pulling gently on Skywarp’s wing to lead him away from the sparkling. 

“You didn’t see what happened!” Skywarp pulled his wing out of his brother’s servos. The burn scars pulsed painfully at the sudden movement. He clenched his denta, continuing. “She landed on me. A-and when she burned me I threw her off! I’m the reason she fell to her—“ he cut himself off when he noticed the crowd of Seekers filtering into the narrow alleyway. 

Starscream leaned in close, his voice lowered to a whisper. “It’s the fault of the mech who threw her off, not yours. They were trying to get rid of a sparkling, in the most cowardly way possible.”

“Just like was tried with you...” Thundercracker added with a low voice, causing Skywarp to shiver. 

The group of Seekers from the street closed in, surrounding the deactivated sparkling with frantic voices and prickling wings. Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Starscream were able to slip away easily. They transformed, flying back home. Starscream and Thundercracker were up front while Skywarp trailed behind. For awhile they flew in silence. There was nothing to be said, not after what he’d seen. That poor sparkling. So young, so innocent. Watching her fall through the sky, useless wing buds flailing, was too much for him.

::It’s not fair,:: Skywarp finally said.

Silence on the comms...

::There was nothing you could do, Sky,” Thundercracker responded. 

But there was. She’d been right there—Pit, she’d been right on top of him! All he had to do was fly her to ground level, but he’d thrown her off... He’d killed an outlier, another bot who could understand the pain he went through every cycle by just being an outlier...


End file.
